Reading Schedule

 
Friday
 
Greenspring 2
 
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM     Reading: Elwin Cotman
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM     Reading: Julie Holderman
Julie will read from a work in progress called Small Mean Things, set in magical Gilded Age Chicago.
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM     Reading: Tamora Pierce
Excerpts from Tempests and Slaughter and Tortall: A Spy's Guide
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM     Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading
The authors of the Broad Universe writing organization share excerpts from their upcoming works.
Danielle Ackley-McPhail,  Margaret Carter,  J.L. Gribble,  Roberta Rogow,  Michelle D. Sonnier
9:15 PM - 9:45 PM     Reading: Jay Smith
9:45 PM - 10:15 PM     Reading: Scott Edelman
Scott will read the opening section of his story, "How Val Finally Escaped from the Basement", released this month in Analog.
10:30 PM - 11:00 PM     Reading: Cristin Kist and Jeff Gritman
"KAT" (A New Prison Dad Short). This story is about the time that an interdimensional rift opened over Sarah's house. I know what you're thinking too, poor Sarah. All she wanted to do was hold a classy dinner party for her friends. One by one, the whole crew-- except for Les -- leaves the house to investigate the phenomenon. They each end up exploring increasingly bizarre alternate realities. As they face dragons, robots, aliens, and monsters, the gang realizes that they are actually in a race against time to return to their correct dimension. Will everyone make it before the sun comes up?
11:00 PM - 11:30 PM     Reading: Kelly Szpara
Kelly reads from his novelette Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time, about a gay trans guy who is bitten by a vampire. Published in Uncanny Magazine.
 
Greenspring 3-5
 
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM     Reading/Signing: Ada Palmer
Ada reads the first chapter of her book, Too Like the Lightning. After the reading, she will sign books and talk to fans.
 
Saturday
 
Greenspring 1
 
10:30 PM - 11:30 PM     Reading: Ada Palmer. Includes Terra Ignota Spoilers
Ada reads from The Will to Battle, book 3 of her Terra Ignota series. This reading is recommended only if you have read the first 2 books in the series; per the author, "If you haven't read the first two, [this reading] isn't just spoilery, it's actually incomprehensible."
 
Ridgely 1
 
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM     Reading: Charles Butler
Readings from Matrona of Crete, the Second Book of the Princess of Galilee Series, plus discussion on historical fiction.
 
Chesapeake 1-2
 
4:15 PM - 4:45 PM     Reading: Danielle Ackley-McPhail
4:45 PM - 5:15 PM     Reading: Meg Eden
Meg reads from her novel Post-High School Reality Quest. Audience participation.
9:15 PM - 9:45 PM     Reading: Kathy MacMillan
Kathy will read an excerpt from her novel Sword and Verse (HarperTeen, 2016). A tale of political intrigue, romance, and the mysteries of language. The story features Raisa, just a child when she was sold into slavery in the kingdom of Qilara. When she is plucked from her menial labor and selected to learn the forbidden language of the gods, she must balance her desire to learn with the desire to stay safe -- and the romance that's been blossoming between her and Prince Mati isn't helping matters. Then Raisa is approached by the Resistance to help liberate the city's slaves. She wants to free her people, but that would mean aiding a war against Mati. As Raisa struggles with what to do, she discovers a secret that the Qilarites have been hiding for centuries -- one that, if uncovered, could bring the kingdom to its knees.
9:45 PM - 10:15 PM     Reading: Don Sakers
Don reads from The Rule of Five, a serial space opera involving pirates, judges, weird physics, desperate refugees, struggling colonists, missing persons, a mystery ship, and a quest for human origins in a pocket universe.
10:30 PM - 11:00 PM     Reading: Michelle D. Sonnier
11:00 PM - 11:30 PM     Reading: Kim Headlee
Mature content. Come hear some steamy bits from Raging Sea, book 3 in The Dragon's Dove Chronicles by Kim Headlee.
 
Sunday
 
Greenspring 2
 
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM     Reading: J.L. Gribble
J.L. Gribble reads short scenes from her new novel, Steel Blood.
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM     Reading: Steve Kozeniewski
Steve will read "The Rules of a Drinking Contest Against Brian Keene".
 
Ridgely 2
 
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM     Reading: Valerie Mikles
What if humans settled on a planet, only to realize that a non-corporeal life was cohabiting the space? What if these spirit-creatures had the power to possess humans and pass on their supernatural abilities to corporeal offspring? To most of the humans living in this new solar system, the human-spirit hybrids are nothing more than a fairy tale, but what happens when one political leader taps into that power and takes control by making his enemies Disappear? Author Valerie J. Mikles will be reading excerpts from the first two books of the New Dawn series: The Disappeared and Sequestered.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM     Reading: Heather Rose Jones
Excerpts from "Gifts Tell Truth", a story that will be appearing in the next Lace and Blade anthology edited by Deborah J. Ross and coming out in February 2018. This is an Alpennia short story about Jeanne de Cherdillac's adventures with a French spy during the Napoleonic occupation of Alpennia.
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM     Reading: Steven R. Southard
Steven will read an excerpt from his story "The Cats of Nerio-3" which appears in the anthology In a Cat's Eye.
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM     Reading: Annalee Flower Horne
Annalee will be reading from The Unnatural, a novelette that appeared in the Futurescapes anthology. She describes it as "a queer Carmen Sandiego with telepaths, and a feminist riff on The Demolished Man."